Wolves and Ravens
by MethLabrador
Summary: All the best emotional moments from the chronicles but with added juice! Includes canon storyline alongside fictional input. Includes Renn, Torak and Bale.
1. But what do you think?

**Hi, I thought I would extend some scenes that I thought deserved some more emotional content from the COAD series! I'm not sure how many of these I do but they won't be in any order. Please enjoy!**

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_Bale looked preoccupied as he scoured the cooking-skin with sand. He opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head and frowned. It wasn't like him to hesitate, so it must be important. Torak twisted a frond of oarweed in his fingers and waited._

_'__When you go back to the Forest,' said Bale without meeting his eyes, 'I'm going to ask Renn to stay here. With me. I want to know what you think about that.'_

_Torak went very still._

_'__Torak?'_

_Torak placed the oarweed on the fire and watched the flames around it turn purple. He felt as if he'd reached the edge of a cliff without knowing it was there. 'Renn can do what she likes,' he said at last._

_'__But you. What do you think?'_

_Torak sprang to his feet. Anger made his skin prickle and his heart bump unpleasantly in his chest. He stared down at Bale, who was handsome, older and part of a clan. He knew that if he stayed, they would fight, and this time it would be for real._

The pale-haired hunter looked up at him, meeting his eyes. They were as blue and steady as the depths of the ocean, silently waiting for his reply.

'I think that Renn can do what she likes,' he repeated at length, the tension in the air easing a fraction.

Bale gave him a look that said he wasn't convinced. 'You're sure don't mind?'

'Why would I mind?' Torak shrugged his shoulders, feigning nonchalance. He sat back down next to the fire, quickly deciding that running off would make him look like a child. Torak also knew that if he fled, Bale might suspect there was something between him and Renn.

'It's just that you and Renn...well you seem close. I didn't want to disrupt anything.'

'There's nothing to disrupt.' Torak said bitterly, thinking of Renn in this conversation made his heart quicken, but he knew that she could never return the feelings he had for her. She deserved someone who could give her a full, normal life. With him, she'd be clanless. He felt sick, but knew he had to stay.

Bale studied his face for a second, then went back to flinging oarweed on the fire. The driftwood hissed and crackled, casting their faces in pale washes of flickering light.

'She probably won't even accept me anyway.'

'She might. You're handsome, strong, and you've got respect in your clan.' Torak reflected miserably on his own absences as Bale's face brightened a little.

'Thanks Torak, I hope she will. But I can see her missing the forest, and you. And wolf.'

'You can always visit.' Torak couldn't believe what he was saying, but he felt numb and oddly detached from the conversation, as if it wasn't really happening. The reality of Renn not being at his side was incomprehensible.

'Yeah, we could,' he said thoughtfully. 'She's so beautiful isn't she?'

Torak nodded dumbly in agreement. The flickering fire reminded him wistfully of her long, flowing hair. He must have been stupid to think that no other men saw her beauty. To think that Bale noticed it especially made him feel unexplainably protective.

'I thought you would have noticed. That's what I thought when I first saw her. But she's so bossy and feisty as well. I like that, though not all men do. I think out here you need a girl who's tough.' Bale smiled to himself, no doubt imagining him and Renn's future together.

'When will you ask her?' Torak asked, his voice sounding strange, as if he were speaking from a great distance.

'Tomorrow after our watch is over. I was thinking of making her a shell necklace beforehand, and maybe bringing her some forest flowers. Do you think I should?'

'I'm not sure she's the flower type.'

'Have you ever given her any?'

'...No.'

'Then how do you know?' he grinned. 'All girls like flowers.'

In his mind, Torak saw her beaming at the gifts and blushing when he asked her to be his mate. He envisioned them embracing and smiling. His stomach flipped unpleasantly, again he felt like getting up and leaving, but he remained.

'Maybe she will like them then, with Renn it's hard to tell sometimes.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, she can be hard to read sometimes.'

'I think all women are like that.' He laughed a little and they lapsed back into thoughtful silence. Torak wished he could congratulate him whole-heartedly. With a sudden rush, he realised that by this time tomorrow he would be congratulating them together on their decision. Bale's family would be there, smiling and welcoming Renn to their family. Fin-Kedinn would be proud, hugging her goodbye and promising to be there for the joining ceremony.

Torak could see Renn telling him that they'd still see each other, and Bale insisting they would stay friends forever, but he knew that it would never be the same, he would be separate. He felt that as of tomorrow, he would be once again an outcast.

_'__I'm off' he said._

_'__Back to camp?' said Bale, studiedly calm._

_'__No.'_

_'__Then where?'_

_'__Just off.'_

_'__What about keeping watch?'_

_'__You do it.'_

_'__Torak. Don't be -'_

_'__I said, you do it!'_

_'__Right. Right.' Bale stared at the fire._

_Torak turned on his heel and ran to his boat. _


	2. Stay with him

_He struck the back of his head against the yew, hard enough to hurt. 'We had a fight. I went off on my own.'_

_Oh Torak. 'What- what did you fight about?'_

_He avoided her gaze. 'He was going to ask you to stay with him.'_

_Renn felt the heat rising to her face._

_'__He didn't want to quarrel,' Torak went on. 'It was me, I was the one. I left him to keep watch alone. That's why he was killed.'_

_Around them, the birds were waking up. Renn saw the dew glistening on fat caterpillar curls of bracken. A bumblebee bumping about among the wildflowers. All this suffering, she thought. Bale dead. His whole clan grieving. Fin-Kedinn hurt. Torak tormented by guilt. All because of Thiazzi. Until now, she hadn't grasped how the evil of the Soul-Eaters spread, like cracks on a frozen lake._

_'__Torak', she said at last. 'That doesn't make it your fault. Thiazzi's the killer. Not you.'_

_The bee settled on Torak's knee, and he watched it's unsteady progress. 'Then why is he haunting me? I have to fulfil my oath, Renn. Or he'll be with me for ever.'_

_She thought about that. 'Maybe you're right. But I'll be with you too. And Wolf. And Rip and Rek.' She paused. 'Only from now on, don't tell me to go back to my clan.'_

_His lips curled. Then he snorted. Easing the bee onto his palm, he placed it on a dock leaf. Dawn came, and they sat side by side, watching sunlight slanting through the forest._

_After a while, Torak said, 'If he had asked you to stay with him, would you have said yes?'_

_Renn turned to stare at him. 'How can you ask that?' she said, exasperated._

_He was puzzled. 'I'm sorry, I. . . Does that mean no?'_

'It means. . .' she trailed off, avoiding his gaze. 'I don't know what it means. Anyway, it hardly matters now.'

'It matters to me.' Torak said quietly.

Renn met his gaze. She knew it would be unfair of her to leave him guessing for the rest of his life, especially how tormented he'd been after his argument with Bale. After a moment or two of really considering it, she replied, 'I. . . I would have probably said no.'

Now it was Torak's turn to stare at her, he looked more puzzled than before. 'Why?'

'I think I would have missed the forest too much. Although I did really like Bale. . . That place was too strange for me. It reminds me of tokoroths and evil mages. I would have never felt at home there.'

'So, you did like Bale?'

'Of course I did.' Then she realised with a blush what Torak meant. 'But, um, not in that way.'

Out of the corner of her eye she saw his shoulders sag a little. Could it be in relief? She hardly knew. 'But he was handsome and strong, he was a good hunter and he always looked after you. Why didn't you like him?'

Renn felt as if he were trying to worm something out of her, but she didn't think him intrusive for wanting to know her feelings. He deserved to know. They still kept a lot of secrets from each other, but the most obvious one neither ever spoke of.

'Because I already have someone like that.' She smiled coyly, hoping he'd get the message and leave it at that.

'Who?'

She rolled her eyes at his obliviousness. 'You.'

'Oh.'

There was a long silence, Renn risked another glance at him and saw to her surprise a small smile on his face and a suspicious red tinge on his tattooed cheeks. She couldn't think of what to say so she absently twirled a strand of hair around her pale fingers, waiting for him to speak.

'You really think I'm handsome?'

She snorted and gave him a boisterous shove that almost sent him flying off the branch. After they'd finished laughing, the tension in the air was gone. A light-headed mood settled on the two of them as they watched the dawn lighten the sky to a brilliant gold.

'Renn, just so you know, I think you're strong and beautiful and the best archer I know. And you always look after me when I've done something stupid.'

She cleared her throat and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 'You're welcome.

Torak turned to her, 'Thank you for telling me what you would have said. It had been weighing on me like a stone.'

_She opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment, Wolf returned, his muzzle dark with blood._


	3. It's okay

_Rain streamed down Torak's face as he climbed to safety, but he scarcely noticed. He was shaking with fatigue, yet strangely numb. He couldn't even feel the wound in his thigh._

_Jumping to earth, he staggered to Renn, who was slumped by the ruins of the fire._ He saw how her radiant hair was no longer smooth, but messy, as if someone had grabbed it. He noted the angry red marks around her wrists and ankles, and the blossoming bruises on her soft skin. Anger rose in Torak's blood as he thought of Thiazzi treating her with such brutality._Kneeling beside her, he gripped her shoulders. 'Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?'_

_She shook her head, but she was white as bone, and her eyes were shadowed with a darkness Thiazzi had created. She opened her mouth to say something; then her face worked and she twisted way from him. The nape of her neck was smooth and defenceless. He put his arms around her and pulled her close._

She trembled in his embrace, trying to keep her emotions buried. She was Renn, she didn't cry. Rain fell heavily on them both, darkening their hair and clothes. She welcomed its cool feel on her delicate skin.

'It's over, it's okay,' he whispered into her damp hair, rubbing soothing circles on her back. She clutched at his shoulders, remembering how close he had been to death. She breathed in his safe, familiar scent that reminded her of wood smoke and pine trees.

Her shoulders shook as she sobbed into Torak's jerkin, gripping the fabric until her knuckles turned white. He held her small form close, letting her release all her pent-up grief. Renn cried for Torak and how unfair it was for him, she cried for Bale, she cried for her injured uncle, and she cried for herself.

'It's too much,' she said between sobs, her voice heavy with anguish, 'it's not fair.'

'I know,' Torak spoke to her quietly. He felt as if his heart was breaking seeing Renn so utterly distraught in his embrace. He wished he could make it all better, to give her the happy life she deserved, away from him and all the destruction he brought in his wake. But he knew without Renn he would have been lost long ago, he would have been killed by the demon bear, and the Soul Eaters would have taken control of the forest.

As much as it hurt her, they had to stay together. It felt right. Him and Renn and Wolf, their destinies were entwined in ways he couldn't comprehend, but he knew that if they were to defeat the Soul Eaters once and for all – he had to do it alongside his best friends.

He stoked her hair and tightened his grip on her, relishing her physical weight on him. For now they were both safe and well. He didn't know what lay ahead for them, but they would face it, as they had always done, together.

_As they clung together, the medicine horn at his hip began to hum. Raising his head, he saw Wolf standing between the Great Yew and the Great Oak, his eyes glowing with the amber light of the guide. Watch, he told Torak. It comes..._


End file.
